And by uncertainty, we don't mean that the paddock anticipates a season so tightly-fought that it's impossible to pick a winner. For all we know, the red cars might sail off into the distance once again. It's just that there has been yet another raft of rule changes for 2005, for better or worse. On one hand, they place a greater emphasis on the likelihood of 'things going wrong', especially in terms of engines and tyres; that could lead to changeable results, a la 2003.

On the other hand, perhaps one or two teams will gain a distinct advantage over the rest of the opposition, but at this stage who that might be, who will respond best to the 2005 regulations, remains to be seen. No one right now knows for sure how tactically to approach this forthcoming season. Thus there has been more scope than ever for off-season testing to be an unindicative game of cat and mouse, of bluff and counter-bluff, of seeing who can blindside the opposition and who generally is best at bullcrap.

We won't know any of the answers until Sunday afternoon in Melbourne. Perhaps we won't even know some of them until Malaysia and beyond, for one of the changes this year is that engine-life has been extended from one race to two. We need not reiterate our criticism of the long-life engine solution as a means of cost-cutting. Last year already showed that all it did was promote super-reliability. We can only hope that making motors go two races really will cause more failures and therefore spice up the results.

The other components that now must last considerably longer than previously are the tyres. Drivers must now use the one set of tyres in both qualifying and race, and only change them in emergencies. This has the greatest potential to throw a spanner in the works this year; balancing tyre wear, aggression and performance will be a challenge that changes on a race-to-race basis. The naturally harder compounds also mean more skittish machines, unless the mechanical grip loss is recouped in the aerodynamics.

Except that the 2005 rules have also reduced aero grip in theory, most noticeably by raising the front wings and bringing forward the rear wings, and also in other ways. Some teams seem to have managed to regain the lost downforce over the off-season, such that lap times have not increased dramatically. Others, like Williams and BAR, seem to be struggling slightly. Visually, the new regulations have resulted in several grotesque front wing solutions, not to mention McLaren's 'devil horn' mid-wings.

In the face of all these changes, and in the quest to bring down the red barons, teams have also seen the biggest shake-ups in driver pairings possibly since 1995-6. McLaren will try to harness the polar opposites of Montoya and Raikkonen. Fisichella has returned to a top team almost unnoticed. Williams are risking two unproven frontrunners in Webber and Heidfeld. Sauber have an ex-champion in Villeneuve, Red Bull the nous of Coulthard, while Toyota have two mercurial race-winners in Trulli and Ralf Schumacher.

BAR might have retained the same drivers, but have lost the driving force of David Richards the helm. As a sign of the times, Jordan (under Midland ownership) and Minardi have gone for all-rookie line-ups, although the freshman field of Karthikeyan, Monteiro, Albers and Friesacher, and Liuzzi if he gets a run in the second Red Bull, is an impressive one. But, frighteningly, the only combo to retain all its ingredients is Ferrari. Will it be a case of 'the more other teams change, the more Ferrari dominance stays the same'?

Lost in all the discussion surrounding the new season is the onset of a record-breaking 19th race on the calendar, adding Turkey to the 18 existing events from last season. The Grand Prix fraternity is now used to the concept of taking F1 into brave new worlds after the generally successful Bahrain and China experiments in 2004. As fans we can only relish the thought of extra races in ever more exotic locations to make it truly a World Championship. So much for cost-cutting, though ...

Ah yes, cost-cutting and F1 politics; as if the rule changes aren't enough to pose question marks at every race! As is well known, Ferrari now finds itself on the side of the FIA with all nine other teams in an opposing coalition. Within those nine teams, the threat of the GPWC remains seemingly real. Plus Minardi's Paul Stoddart leads those nine in claiming that the rule changes are illegal, and in abiding by self-imposed testing restrictions that only Ferrari haven't signed up to.

We're not holding our breath to see if those nine teams can thrash out unanimous technical proposals for the future, and/or if Ferrari and the FIA will join them. In the meantime, the position of the nine means that, in theory, if you are so inclined, the legitimacy of any Ferrari victories in 2005 can be questioned. At least Stoddart and co would like us to believe so. But to hell with that, we say. Let the lights go out and the racing begin. Let's just see what happens and call it as we see it. Amen to that.